Furloughed Employees Head Back To Work, But Worries Remain

Activists with the California Alliance for Retired Americans hold placards while gathered for a die-in to protest the government shutdown and possible effects on senior citizens in front of the Federal Building in Los Angeles on October 16, 2013. The US House of Representatives will vote Wednesday on an eleventh-hour deal that would prevent a US debt default, with top Republican John Boehner admitting that the "fight" is over. Boehner, speaker in the House of Representatives said in a statement that "blocking the bipartisan agreement reached today by the members of the Senate will not be a tactic for us." AFP PHOTO/Frederic J. BROWN (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

(FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOX) – It’s over. The federal government reopened Thursday, after Congress passed legislation to fund the government hours before the country was set to lose its borrowing authority.

But there is a catch. The bill approved late Wednesday will only fund the government through Jan. 15 and lift the debt ceiling through Feb. 7.

Meaning another federal shutdown could be looming.

“Its a very temporary agreement,” American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3354 President, Steven Hollis, told KMOX.

That’s whey he says the union will continue to protest from now until New Year’s, to keep the pressure on the government.

The solution? Hollis says would be to “get back to progressive taxation.”

“We’re not going to get out of this log jam. We’re not going to have the government that the majority of the American people have grown to expect.”

Impact of the Shutdown

Hollis said the 16 day shutdown cost the local economy $5 million a day.

The legislation passed Wednesday will also pay furloughed government workers for the time they missed during the shutdown.